5 ms·

I'm an autonomy engineer at Skydio, and while there are limits to what I can reveal publicly, I'm happy to answer any questions people have.

bluegene 7y ago
I've never flown a drone before. How easy would it be for me to learn?
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  Take a look at the warranty. If the drone crashes, it's our fault not yours. In that sense, flying Skydio 2 should require about the same minimum skill as using a smartphone camera (i.e. none). We say a three year old can operate it, but that's not a hard minimum ;) That said, there is always a skill ladder to climb if you want jaw-dropping professional footage, where understanding lighting, composition, editing, etc. benefit the quality of what you can make. The drone is pretty good at autonomously picking good shots, but there's also a lot of manual control possible, especially with the controller.
  - HALtheWise 7y ago
    Edit: Also, don't forget about local regulations wherever you fly. You are still legally the pilot, even if the drone's software can make that easier.
- skavi 7y ago
  It looks like the point of this product is that it flys itself.
  - xtagon 7y ago
    Hobbiest, here. While these types of products are very easy to learn how to control, I would discourage anyone from suggesting that they "fly itself" because it's that type of thinking that encourages newcomers to the hobby to ignore learning about safety and following regulations. They only fly itself to a degree, you still need to be diligent and they can be dangerous machines.
- wereHamster 7y ago
  Depends on what kind of drone. Flying a FPV / racing drone requires some skill (but not much if you've played games). Flying acrobatic drones in third person (eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duHCDwH9G2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duHCDwH9G2M) requires a lot of skill. Compared to those, flying drones like those from DJI require almost no skill. These drones do some form of obstacle avoidance on their own. You basically have to tell them where to fly and they will go there. Some are smarter than others in how they execute the manoeuvres, but some common sense will get you a long way with those.
octocop 7y ago
Can it be used for shooting surf footage? Over water and such
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  Yes, it works just fine over water. If you are going to use it for surfing, I would recommend taking a beacon in a waterproof bag of some sort, just to have the extra range and make sure it doesn't lose you. Keep in mind that the warranty does not apply to water damage, so fly at your own risk. Also, make sure you can get back to land when the battery runs out, or that you're really comfortable hand-catching it. Edit: I have been informed that you can manually set a "home point" on land to return to when the battery gets low. Also, apparently the surfing footage we captured was done with a pilot on shore with the joysticks as a range extender, and the subject being tracked purely visually (no beacon involved)
JorgeGT 7y ago
What is your policy towards avoiding restricted airspace? If flying autonomously the drone enters a restricted airspace (without specific user direction to do so) could Skydio be hold responsible? Any user (or AI!) sharing the airspace should carefully read and follow FAA rules https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ or the local laws, a point that is seldom mentioned by some sellers.
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  This is one of the reasons we don't let the drone keep following for very long if the connection is lost to the phone or beacon controlling it. As a person operating the drone, it's your job to know local and national regulations and follow them.
  - JorgeGT 7y ago
    So, no geofencing or accesing NOTAMs, etc. in the AI? Regarding the second point I wholeheartedly agree, but I'm concerned when instead of the stern warning that flying these machines requires a good deal of study and preflight preparation to avoid endangering others or breaking the law, one constantly sees statements such as flying should require about the same minimum skill as using a smartphone camera (i.e. none), a three year old can operate it, etc.
    - HALtheWise 7y ago
      Good point, I added a note to that post. We do have a safety training that you have to complete in the app before flying, and various support resources [1]. I think it's possible for drones to be safe, fun, and non-disruptive at the same time. [1] https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000586653-Skydio-Flight-Safety https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000586653-Sk...
  - simonebrunozzi 7y ago
    This might be for a future release, but you can consider geofencing the drone with maps pre-loaded, so that even if it doesn't have connectivity, it can still automatically avoid the no-fly zones.
bbayer 7y ago
Do you have any plans to be more developer friendly? Do you plan to give some sort of API to make custom development? It can bring lots of opportunities to devs if it provides some sort of hackability.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
  - HALtheWise 7y ago
    Please don't do that.
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    it'll be a while yet before someone mounts a usable weapon system on a 700g drone. you might be able to carry a couple bottle rockets and fire them in the general direction of your target, I guess.
    - markdown 7y ago
      https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz4BZGwFX1b/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz4BZGwFX1b/
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  We are working with various commercial and industrial users, but don't currently have anything to announce regarding a consumer accessible API (partially so people don't do stuff like make weapons). If you think you have a really good application, please get in touch. https://medium.com/skydio/skydio-2-drone-industry-34b5634d4816 https://medium.com/skydio/skydio-2-drone-industry-34b5634d48...
  - _dps 7y ago
    I've been wondering about the broad lack of programmability in commercially available drones (something that seems like an obvious feature). Would you say this is the main motivation, or is this just the motivation for Skydio?
xtagon 7y ago
It appears to not have a 3-axis gimbal for the front camera, in the promo photos. Yet the demo footage is stable. How is video stabilization accomplished? Does it use the 4K cameras all around the airframe for the actual footage and not just navigation inputs?
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  We have a 3-axis gimbal, the footage comes from the front camera. Pics: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-autonomous-self-flying-camera-controller-price-release-date-announcement https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-a...
  - xtagon 7y ago
    Thank you for the pics! That is a very unique gimbal design :-)
jfim 7y ago
Out of curiosity, how do you handle avoiding long thin objects (cables, power lines)? Is this something that modern drones can handle now, or something that requires careful flying?
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  Thin objects are really hard, and are probably the single area we have made the most software progress since the R1, especially very thin twigs and branches (it's still not perfect, fly carefully). We completely rebuilt the stereo vision algorithms to try to handle those better, basically by incorporating semantic knowledge (recognizing what is a tree, or a power line) in addition to traditional stereo vision techniques. To my knowledge, our systems are significantly more advanced than even the state of the art in academic research papers, so I would be impressed if there are any other drones that match our performance today.
  - jfim 7y ago
    Nice, great job! I'm glad to know that those hard objects are handled, I'll probably put in a pre order today.
deckar01 7y ago
Why do the front props point down?
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  It's really hard to see "through" propellers with a camera, and we need to mount our top cameras on the front arms. That's one of the examples of why we think that great autonomy is possible only if it's designed in from day 1.
mrbonner 7y ago
How much of your product is manufactured here in the US: parts, software? I saw the hiring post and it appears you're Redwood city based.
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  All of our development (software, mechanical, electrical, marketing, etc.) is done at our headquarters in Redwood City, CA. The parts come from all over the world, I don't know the exact breakdown of country of origin. Assembly, testing, and shipping all happens from Redwood City. Eventually, it might become necessary to move some of that work overseas, but we really enjoy the rapid development and iteration speed that comes from having the assembly line across the street from the engineers.
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
Congrats, it seems an impressive product! The AI part shouldn't be easy to design. Can you provide a discount coupon for us nice folks on HN? simone dot brunozzi at gmail Thanks!
tbyehl 7y ago
Can it follow a motorcycle up the Tail of the Dragon from Deal's Gap to the overlook? Want to send me one so we can find out? ;-)
mips_avatar 7y ago
Is libargus the way to go with the tx1 cameras? I was using nvcamerasrc but have had some bugs I can’t understand.
m463 7y ago
Can you just go fly your drone, or do you have to register your drone and so forth? I returned the DJI because you had to make an account and register your drone before you could fly with the controller. Additionally after I returned it, a friend showed me the appalling snooping they do on their customers and flights.
- bjtitus 7y ago
  To be fair, there are strict FAA rules that tons of people completely disregard. It seems like it'd be in the companies interest to do its best to ensure their market doesn't collapse due to further regulation. Seems like it could be an attempt to understand and police some of that activity rather than "appalling snooping".
donquixote25 7y ago
Hi! Joining the party late, but why did you guys opt for the two propellers up/two propellers down design?

bluegene 7y ago

I've never flown a drone before. How easy would it be for me to learn?

HALtheWise 7y ago
Take a look at the warranty. If the drone crashes, it's our fault not yours. In that sense, flying Skydio 2 should require about the same minimum skill as using a smartphone camera (i.e. none). We say a three year old can operate it, but that's not a hard minimum ;) That said, there is always a skill ladder to climb if you want jaw-dropping professional footage, where understanding lighting, composition, editing, etc. benefit the quality of what you can make. The drone is pretty good at autonomously picking good shots, but there's also a lot of manual control possible, especially with the controller.
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  Edit: Also, don't forget about local regulations wherever you fly. You are still legally the pilot, even if the drone's software can make that easier.
skavi 7y ago
It looks like the point of this product is that it flys itself.
- xtagon 7y ago
  Hobbiest, here. While these types of products are very easy to learn how to control, I would discourage anyone from suggesting that they "fly itself" because it's that type of thinking that encourages newcomers to the hobby to ignore learning about safety and following regulations. They only fly itself to a degree, you still need to be diligent and they can be dangerous machines.
wereHamster 7y ago
Depends on what kind of drone. Flying a FPV / racing drone requires some skill (but not much if you've played games). Flying acrobatic drones in third person (eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duHCDwH9G2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duHCDwH9G2M) requires a lot of skill. Compared to those, flying drones like those from DJI require almost no skill. These drones do some form of obstacle avoidance on their own. You basically have to tell them where to fly and they will go there. Some are smarter than others in how they execute the manoeuvres, but some common sense will get you a long way with those.

octocop 7y ago

Can it be used for shooting surf footage? Over water and such

HALtheWise 7y ago
Yes, it works just fine over water. If you are going to use it for surfing, I would recommend taking a beacon in a waterproof bag of some sort, just to have the extra range and make sure it doesn't lose you. Keep in mind that the warranty does not apply to water damage, so fly at your own risk. Also, make sure you can get back to land when the battery runs out, or that you're really comfortable hand-catching it. Edit: I have been informed that you can manually set a "home point" on land to return to when the battery gets low. Also, apparently the surfing footage we captured was done with a pilot on shore with the joysticks as a range extender, and the subject being tracked purely visually (no beacon involved)

JorgeGT 7y ago

What is your policy towards avoiding restricted airspace? If flying autonomously the drone enters a restricted airspace (without specific user direction to do so) could Skydio be hold responsible? Any user (or AI!) sharing the airspace should carefully read and follow FAA rules https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ or the local laws, a point that is seldom mentioned by some sellers.

HALtheWise 7y ago
This is one of the reasons we don't let the drone keep following for very long if the connection is lost to the phone or beacon controlling it. As a person operating the drone, it's your job to know local and national regulations and follow them.
- JorgeGT 7y ago
  So, no geofencing or accesing NOTAMs, etc. in the AI? Regarding the second point I wholeheartedly agree, but I'm concerned when instead of the stern warning that flying these machines requires a good deal of study and preflight preparation to avoid endangering others or breaking the law, one constantly sees statements such as flying should require about the same minimum skill as using a smartphone camera (i.e. none), a three year old can operate it, etc.
  - HALtheWise 7y ago
    Good point, I added a note to that post. We do have a safety training that you have to complete in the app before flying, and various support resources [1]. I think it's possible for drones to be safe, fun, and non-disruptive at the same time. [1] https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000586653-Skydio-Flight-Safety https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000586653-Sk...
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago
  This might be for a future release, but you can consider geofencing the drone with maps pre-loaded, so that even if it doesn't have connectivity, it can still automatically avoid the no-fly zones.

bbayer 7y ago

Do you have any plans to be more developer friendly? Do you plan to give some sort of API to make custom development? It can bring lots of opportunities to devs if it provides some sort of hackability.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
- HALtheWise 7y ago
  Please don't do that.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  it'll be a while yet before someone mounts a usable weapon system on a 700g drone. you might be able to carry a couple bottle rockets and fire them in the general direction of your target, I guess.
  - markdown 7y ago
    https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz4BZGwFX1b/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz4BZGwFX1b/
HALtheWise 7y ago
We are working with various commercial and industrial users, but don't currently have anything to announce regarding a consumer accessible API (partially so people don't do stuff like make weapons). If you think you have a really good application, please get in touch. https://medium.com/skydio/skydio-2-drone-industry-34b5634d4816 https://medium.com/skydio/skydio-2-drone-industry-34b5634d48...
- _dps 7y ago
  I've been wondering about the broad lack of programmability in commercially available drones (something that seems like an obvious feature). Would you say this is the main motivation, or is this just the motivation for Skydio?

xtagon 7y ago

It appears to not have a 3-axis gimbal for the front camera, in the promo photos. Yet the demo footage is stable. How is video stabilization accomplished? Does it use the 4K cameras all around the airframe for the actual footage and not just navigation inputs?

HALtheWise 7y ago
We have a 3-axis gimbal, the footage comes from the front camera. Pics: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-autonomous-self-flying-camera-controller-price-release-date-announcement https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/1/20892377/skydio-2-drone-a...
- xtagon 7y ago
  Thank you for the pics! That is a very unique gimbal design :-)

jfim 7y ago

Out of curiosity, how do you handle avoiding long thin objects (cables, power lines)? Is this something that modern drones can handle now, or something that requires careful flying?

HALtheWise 7y ago
Thin objects are really hard, and are probably the single area we have made the most software progress since the R1, especially very thin twigs and branches (it's still not perfect, fly carefully). We completely rebuilt the stereo vision algorithms to try to handle those better, basically by incorporating semantic knowledge (recognizing what is a tree, or a power line) in addition to traditional stereo vision techniques. To my knowledge, our systems are significantly more advanced than even the state of the art in academic research papers, so I would be impressed if there are any other drones that match our performance today.
- jfim 7y ago
  Nice, great job! I'm glad to know that those hard objects are handled, I'll probably put in a pre order today.

deckar01 7y ago

Why do the front props point down?

HALtheWise 7y ago
It's really hard to see "through" propellers with a camera, and we need to mount our top cameras on the front arms. That's one of the examples of why we think that great autonomy is possible only if it's designed in from day 1.

mrbonner 7y ago

How much of your product is manufactured here in the US: parts, software? I saw the hiring post and it appears you're Redwood city based.

HALtheWise 7y ago
All of our development (software, mechanical, electrical, marketing, etc.) is done at our headquarters in Redwood City, CA. The parts come from all over the world, I don't know the exact breakdown of country of origin. Assembly, testing, and shipping all happens from Redwood City. Eventually, it might become necessary to move some of that work overseas, but we really enjoy the rapid development and iteration speed that comes from having the assembly line across the street from the engineers.

simonebrunozzi 7y ago

Congrats, it seems an impressive product! The AI part shouldn't be easy to design. Can you provide a discount coupon for us nice folks on HN? simone dot brunozzi at gmail Thanks!

tbyehl 7y ago

Can it follow a motorcycle up the Tail of the Dragon from Deal's Gap to the overlook? Want to send me one so we can find out? ;-)

mips_avatar 7y ago

Is libargus the way to go with the tx1 cameras? I was using nvcamerasrc but have had some bugs I can’t understand.

m463 7y ago

Can you just go fly your drone, or do you have to register your drone and so forth? I returned the DJI because you had to make an account and register your drone before you could fly with the controller. Additionally after I returned it, a friend showed me the appalling snooping they do on their customers and flights.

bjtitus 7y ago
To be fair, there are strict FAA rules that tons of people completely disregard. It seems like it'd be in the companies interest to do its best to ensure their market doesn't collapse due to further regulation. Seems like it could be an attempt to understand and police some of that activity rather than "appalling snooping".

donquixote25 7y ago

Hi! Joining the party late, but why did you guys opt for the two propellers up/two propellers down design?